{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://rohrabacher.house.gov//media-center/press-releases/rohrabacher-allow-va-doctors-to-prescribe-medical-marijuana", "Rohrabacher: Allow VA Doctors to Prescribe Medical Marijuana", "2014-11-21", "2014", "2014-11", "Republican", "House", "CA", "Dana Rohrabacher", "R000409", "rohrabacher.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, DC \u2013 Representatives Dana Rohrabacher, R-CA, and Earl Blumenaur, D-OR, along with ten bipartisan cosponsors, have introduced the Veterans Equal Access Act, which would make it easier for qualified veterans to access medical marijuana.\nCurrently, the Department of Veterans Affairs specifically prohibits its medical providers from completing forms brought by their patients seeking recommendations or opinions regarding a veteran\u2019s participation in a state medical marijuana program.\u00a0The act would authorize VA physicians and other health care providers to provide recommendations and opinions regarding the use of medical marijuana to veterans who live in medical marijuana states.\n\u201cOur antiquated drug laws must catch up with the real suffering of so many of our veterans,\u201d said Rohrabacher. \u201cThis is now a moral cause and a matter of supreme urgency. It is unconscionable that a VA doctor cannot offer a full range of treatments, including medical marijuana, which in many cases has been shown to have worked, to an American veteran who fought valiantly for our country. Conscience dictates that we not coldly ignore these desperate men and women, and that we remove government from its paternalistic stance between patient and doctor.\u201d\n\u201cPost traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury are just as damaging and harmful as any injuries that are visible from the outside,\u201d said Blumenauer. \u201cSometimes even more so because of the devastating effect they can have on a veteran\u2019s family. We should be allowing these wounded warriors access to the medicine that will help them survive and thrive, including medical marijuana, not treating them like criminals and forcing them into the shadows. It\u2019s shameful.\u201d\nMore than 20 percent of the 2.8 million American veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD and depression. In addition, a recent study found that of the nearly one million veterans who receive opioids to treat painful conditions, more than half continue to consume chronically or beyond 90 days. Another study found that the death rate from opiate overdoses among VA patients is nearly double the national average. In states where patients can legally access medical marijuana for painful conditions, office as a less addictive alternative, the hands of VA physicians should not be tied.\nThe bill is also cosponsored by Justin Amash, R-MI, Paul Broun , R-GA, Steve Cohen, D-TN, Sam Farr, D-CA, \u00a0Walter Jones, R-NC, Thomas Massie, R-KY, Beto O\u2019Rourke, D-TX, Jared Polis, D-CO, Steve Stockman, R-TX, and Dina Titus, D-NV.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ####", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://rohrabacher.house.gov//media-center/press-releases/rohrabacher-allow-va-doctors-to-prescribe-medical-marijuana"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.1844988912343979, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}